Most of the more recent projects involved one disaster after another; a sign of our times [?] The theme for my next reel seemed obvious. It was fun material to work on, I have to admit. See if you can spot where the 3D and hand-drawn pieces meet. I had to turn off comments because of all the spambots, but my email is at the bottom of the home page.

A spot for the Humane Society of Indiana. I provided character design, storyboarding, animatics, animation and compositing. The clients chose a totally B&W look. This is my sepia toned director’s cut. I have also reinstated early versions of some shots, which I think add a little more ‘drama’. The production companies involved were Fivestone Studios (Nashville) and Good Vibes Media (Indianapolis). This is the second time I’ve worked with Fivestone in recent months, which I’ve enjoyed very much. They are a talented, capable and pleasant crew.

Che the dog, who is too old to see well, has the friend he really needs – he just doesn’t know it yet. Get a PDF ebook edition for only $2.99. There is also a nice print version. Besides the illustrated story, I put extra drawings on the page corners. These can be used as a flipbook, the front and the back of pages. For any intrepid little reader that wants to see how animation works, there are additional pages of drawings that show the complete movements of Che and his friend. The book finishes with a color catalog of the native wildflowers in Che’s garden.

A mostly After Effects animated music video for Modestep, I am credited as Animation Lead Colourist. I painted all of Alex Young’s line art. That is all the character animation except for the concert scenes. It was great working with Richard Payne, who is currently directing at NTSH London. See more of the art after the break.

The SaltMarsh is my second animated short. It is a work in progress, between assignments. The backgrounds shown here are first composed in storyboard form. The boards have enough detail to serve as a decent shot layout. From there I work on rough, cold press watercolor paper. I produce a black and white tonal painting with Japanese stick ink and traditional brushes. Next, I scan the painting on a large, high quality flatbed scanner. The painting is digitally colored, and eventually composited using a virtual After Effects camera.

After traveling in Nepal, Japan, Peru, Hawaii and a lot of the American west, mostly with dusty boots and a backpack, I sat and pondered the pile of film I’d shot. I had worked in-house so much at agencies, production facilities and networks, that I’d never had time to animate something for myself. This was the time to start. The first thing I did was start drawing environments. Below are a few of the results.